April 2022 Grocery Challenge

atrixa

£4.70 spend in Mr M yesterday on pasta, coffee beans, bread and doughnuts (all own brand) and some oreos that were on offer at £1, which I'm sure was their normal price a few weeks ago. 

Has anyone else noticed that the yellow sticker discounts don't seem to be as big? I went in less than an hour before closing, and the doughnuts were 52p down from 69p. I've seen them as low as about 13p in the past. Same with all the veg that was YS- just a few pennies off.

I'm over: £136.07/£135.

Pinwheel

Hello

Spends of £64.92 mostly in L**l to report.  I've realised I am in the habit of picking up things that I know I'll use but that I don't need for this weeks meals.  I tried not to do that today and have saved a bit.  
 
It's soup for lunch and burger night tonight, some vege some meat, with chips and salad.

Have a good day

MissRikkiC

I too was overcharged the other day in MrL @Greying_Pilgrim and it was quite a costly mistake. I must have picked up the more expensive spaghetti without realising (79p vs 20p) x2 which I wouldn’t have bought even 1 of at that price yet they actually charged me for 3! And then nappies were also more than the price quoted/assumed by 10p per pack x 3! I haven’t had chance to go in yet and thankfully I can wait but I know others couldn’t and it’s not okay! 

@Vanlady thankfully it’s very mild so not suffering too much. 

PipneyJane

@Greying_Pilgrim after being overcharged once or twice on YS items, I watch the screen like a hawk when things are being rung up AND always check my receipt before leaving the shop.  I’ve also been known to photograph the shelf labels and contest the price in L!dl.  One thing I will say, is that they aren’t as bad as our local MrT’s, who are notorious for putting a more expensive item on the shelf where a cheaper item is listed on the shelf-sticker.  (I read shelf labels like a hawk, too.)

Thank you everyone for your responses about HB.  If they ever open, I will have a wander around.

Saturday’s “Shopping Day” turned out to be 3 shops for us and 2 for MIL!  I dashed into her local large MrT’s to use the loo on the way - she lives on the other side of London - so DH took the opportunity to check out their YS items and to buy MIL some flowers.  £4.78 spent from the GC fund on 750g YS lean steak mince and YS Cumberland sausages.  Then on to L!dl, where we did the bulk of her shopping, plus I picked up the fresh veg we needed.  £8.27 spent, which included extra chocolate for the Easter treat of Coconut Rough.  

On the way home, we popped into our local L!dl on the off-chance that they had some bargains and to pick up the few items from the shopping list that wouldn’t keep well on a 45 mile drive home, even in a cool bag.  (Frozen salmon en croute, mainly.). £12.88 spent on own-brand chewing gum for the cars (2x£1.29 - DH’s treat), salmon en croute, chilli bratwurst on offer 3x£1.09, YS muffins 20p and YS hot cross buns 69p.  Since earlier in the day we’d crossed the £50 barrier on L!dl Plus, we also had a voucher for a free “bakery item”.  After reading the blurb carefully, I discovered that it included the largest bakery item they had available:  a sour dough rye bloomer (normally £1.59), so picked up one of those, too.  (Used it on Sunday as the base for Welsh Rarebit.  Very nice.)

On the drive home, DH and I agreed that we’d refund the Grocery Challenge Fund with £5 from the Christmas Fund, to pay for all the chocolate I’d bought to make Coconut Rough for Easter.  £5 duly transferred back in.  (It’s what we’ve always done in the past.  Not sure why it became an issue this year.) 

Finally, I got half way through prepping dinner last night, when I realised we didn’t have any chorizo.  (I was making a broccoli, chorizo and crème fraîche pasta.). Messaged DH, who popped into the small Sainsbugs near his office on the way home and bought a much longer-than-usual one, on offer at £2. He’s picking up another 4 today.

All the above brings our total spend for April to £66.66/£142.10, leaving £75.44 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Since the link at the front seems to be broken - it takes you to the April 2019 GC thread but no where near the post -  here again is my recipe for Coconut Rough.

Coconut Rough

Ingredients

375 chocolate - I either use 50% dark or half milk and half 70% dark
60g coconut oil
3 cups desiccated coconut

Method

1. Line a baking tray or two with either cling film or foil.
2. Boil a kettle full of water.
3. In a large, heatproof bowl, measure your coconut oil and then break your chocolate over the top.
4. Pour the boiling water into a saucepan, put it on a low heat and place your bowl over the top.  Stir the chocolate mixture occasionally, as it melts.  
5. Turn off the heat and fold in the desiccated coconut.
6. Using a teaspoon, dollop a spoonful at a time onto your lined baking trays, taking care to keep each spoonful separate.
7. Once a tray is full, pop it into the fridge for an hour or so until the chocolate is hard.
8. Place into containers and store in the fridge.  (Because of the coconut oil, this melts more quickly than a chocolate bar would.)
9. Try not to eat it all at once. 

This recipe doubles up well.  The only limit, really, is the size of your bowl and whether you can fit more than a tray or two into your fridge at a time.

- Pip

joedenise

ariarnia said:

question please. i want to make a butternut squash and chickpea curry in my slow cooker. i've made it before and it's nice and easy but i'm out of coconut milk. the internet says i can use natural yogurt which i have but i can't find an answer about when i add it. normally i'd just layer the ingredients in the slow cooker and the coconut milk would be some of the liquid used to rehydrate the chick peas but i'm not sure if the yogurt will curdle so should be added at the end?

When I make butternut squash and chickpea curry I don't use any coconut milk as I'm not keen on curries which are too creamy so you really don't need to any.  If you want a creamy curry then I certainly wouldn't add yoghurt until the end as it will curdle when heating - at least it does whenever I've heated it!

ragz_2

Thank you for the coconut rough recipe PipneyJane I have some dessicated coconut and some chocolate, so will be trying that. I don't like the taste of coconut oil in food though, can I leave it out? 

Vanlady

Thankyou joedenise re jacket potato advice.

£55.35 to declare in an Aldeeee shop shop today, tagged along by mr Van Man, so crisps, chocolate and chicken all bought by him!  Plus 12 cartons of uht, 8 orange juice, more 19p carrots, even though I bought some on monday - I just cant resist a bargain! More 23p potatoes, plus  other bits including frozen veg and fish fingers, veg spring rolls, toilet roll, noodles, nuts, salmon, squash,  chilli sauce, rice apples and bananas. I know I've bought more veg than necessary, but it will all get used and incorporated into meals, nothing will get wasted here. 

But darn!, I will need to pop into another supermarket this weekend to get beansprouts  as the Aldeee ones today were a bit past it. I would be quite happy having a stir fry without beansprouts but mr fussypot van insists on them

But that should do it for another week at least.

Got a shock at the hike in price in pasta.....used to be 49p for 500gm, now 75p  ⁸

Total: £79.37/£180 from 11th to 30th April

PipneyJane

ragz_2 said:

Thank you for the coconut rough recipe PipneyJane I have some dessicated coconut and some chocolate, so will be trying that. I don't like the taste of coconut oil in food though, can I leave it out? 

The coconut oil enhances the coconut taste.  It is the medium in which the chocolate melts.  I suppose you could use butter instead, although I’ve never tried.  If you do, please let us know how you get on.

- Pip

Doom_and_Gloom

£55.47 spent since last post between Mr S and L!do.
Many different shops but with getting everything sorted for when OH was going away posting here went to the wayside.

The OH is now gone for the rest of the month. This will be the longest we have ever been apart in one time in over 16 years together. Not only will I miss him but he is my carer so it is going to be an...interesting rest of the month.
I have enough food etc in for well over a week so no need to shop or get an A&C delievery until 25th at the earliest. Hoping to get by for the rest of the month with what I have in now though as I'm sure it is possible so that is my real aim.
We made sure I have easy to cook meals; for example I have frozen Mediterranean mix incase things get really bad, but want a healthy meal, so all I have to do is shove that in the PKP with tomatoes/passata and pasta or serve with rice from multicooker. Frozen and tinned fruit for when I run out of fresh.
Wish me luck! 

£135.52/£165.
£29.48 left.